In the assembly of appliances having sheathed electric heating elements of usual manufacture, it is necessary to provide mounting, support, or hinge brackets which are attached to the appliance housing and which are commonly apertured to receive therethrough a portion of the elongated sheathed heating element or elements.
In an effort to provide proper support for, prevent relative movement between, and provide good electrical contact with the bracket and the sheath for grounding or like purposes, the bracket has heretofore been affixed to the heating element as by brazing, welding, crimping, or the like. Illustrative of such prior art assemblies are the patents to Thomas, U.S. Pat. No. 2,670,529, Bremer U.S. Pat. No. 2,799,767, Yartz U.S. Pat. No. 3,899,658 and Pease U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,140.
Further, as the bracket is frequently formed from stainless steel for, flexibility, durability, ease of cleaning, and general eye appeal, it has hitherto been necessary to fabricate a multi-part connection between the bracket and heating element in order to effect the desired metal joining technique to be employed, as welding, crimping, etc. Such fabrication inherently introduces cost and handling complexity into the assembly, as when a suitable element-connectable steel plate must be first secured to the stainless steel bracket as by individual rivets prior to the actual subsequent connection to the heating element portion.
Pending application Ser. No. 019,120, filed Mar. 9, 1979, illustrates and thereafter issued as U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,291 on Dec. 23, 1980 and an improvement upon the prior art in the use of a single flanged tubular insert for mounting a sheathed heating element to a planar bracket member. The tubular insert shown in the drawings in the referenced application is of an eyelet-like configuration, with a tubular extension, that extends through an aperture in a planar mounting bracket and encases the heating element. The tubular extension is axially compressed and buckled against the mounting bracket to form a second outwardly extending flange that grips the sheathed heating element and fixes the element in relation to the planar bracket.
The present invention further improves upon such mounting structure and will simplify the necessary materials while producing more effective gripping action then the improved mounting of the above-mentioned pending application.